Inspiration, Encouragement, Challenge

All of us need to hang on to a group of friends who will inspire, encourage and challenge us to greater accomplishments for God's kingdom causes.  That's why we all desperately need to be part of a local body of believers where God's Word is taught and His Son is worshipped.  Today's churches can trace their heritage back to the ancient body of Christ and heroes of the faith as seen through the eyes of the writer of the Hebrews.

As children of God, we are prised, chosen by Him to reign at His side. Yet, beautiful and beloved as we are, we go right on living in drudgery as citizens of a second-class country, forfeiting heavenly treasures by clinging to earthly ones.

At death, a Christian doesn't leave home.  We go home.

We are [as I was saying] of good courage and confident hope, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. - 2 Corinthians 5:8

Consider the paradox - our true home is a place we've never been!

C. S. Lewis captured this idea perfectly with one of his memorable metaphors. Let me quote from his book The Problem of Pain:

“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge

A Christian Thought for the Day

Encouraging Bible Verses

What is our deepest desire and need?

As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him? - Psalm 42:1-2

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water. - Psalm 63:1

How precious is your unfailing love, O God!All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see. - Psalm 36:7-9

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! - Psalm 34:8

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."  Matthew 5:6

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart - John 7:37-38

“It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life." - Revelation 21:6

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.           Revelation 22:17

I wonder how many of us have found any of these verses part of our prayer and worship in our earlier days following Jesus and now would find it hard to repeat them for the heart has grown a little bit colder.  I wonder for how many your relationship with Jesus has found newness to the point that you are shouting amen as you read these out loud.  My prayer is that all of us would make sure that our hearts are in a place where God can meet our desires and our needs.

What is the chief end of man?  The Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647 says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."  

Augustine wrote the Confessions - here is what he wrote.

During all those years [of rebellion], where was my free will? What was the hidden, secret place from which it was summoned in a moment, so that I might bend my neck to your easy yoke . . .? How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.

What a Savior - Laura Story

Our Deepest Desires

Our Deepest Desires

UNDERSTANDING OUR DEEPEST NEEDS

Every person has a price

"I spoke just now of the struggle for success. What is success? Is it money? Some of you have all the money you need to provide for your wants. Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money, nothing else in the world upon which to devote his ambition and thought. That is the sort of man I consider to be the poorest in the world. Money is good if you know how to use it. - John D. Rockefeller

Satan works under the assumption that every person has a price.  Many are willing to surrender themselves and their principles to whatever god will bring them the greatest short-term profit.

Israel is portrayed in the OT as abandoning her rightful husband, God, and sells herself to the highest bidder. The prophets develop this metaphor to embarrassing extents.  The nauseating descriptions of Israel's waywardness exemplify God's hurt and horror at the spiritual adultery of His people as they chase after other gods.

 The NT tells us that --

"... a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world." Colossians 3:5

Idolatry is worshipping and serving anything other than the one true God.

The idolatrous nature of materialism: The common expression that describes such a value system as “the pursuit of the almighty dollar” is soundly based in the recognition that the exaltation of possessions to the level of ultimacy is the end of a religious quest, one that seeks and ascribes ultimate meaning. Like all idolatries, it finds ultimate meaning in an aspect of the creation rather than in the Creator. And like all idolatries it finds outlet in destructive pathologies that wreck human lives. - Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

 Scripture speaks of these destructive pathologies --

"But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." - 1 Timothy 6:9-10

 Jesus said the  rich are at a spiritual disadvantage.  The problem, of course, is not that God doesn't love the rich.Who needs God, we think, when we've got everything?  This is why Jesus said --

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". - Matthew 6:24

 Why? For the same reason a man cannot have two wives.

Materialism consists of the two things God hates most - idolatry and adultery.  A voice from heaven pleads with God's people - a voice that we would do well to heed today --

“Come away from her, my people.
Do not take part in her sins,
or you will be punished with her.
For her sins are piled as high as heaven,
and God remembers her evil deeds.
Do to her as she has done to others.
Double her penalty for all her evil deeds.
She brewed a cup of terror for others,
so brew twice as much for her.
She glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so match it now with torment and sorrow.
She boasted in her heart,
‘I am queen on my throne.
I am no helpless widow,
and I have no reason to mourn.’ - Revelation 18:4-7

 One day, God will bring down all centres of human achievement and prosperity that do not humble themselves before Him.  When financial Babylon comes down, the merchants who gained their wealth from this corrupt materialistic philosophy will say --

“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,
decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
In a single moment
all the wealth of the city is gone!” - Revelation 18:16-17

Why is prayer important when the gospel is being shared?  Because there is a battle over ownership and lordship of our lives that's just as intense as the battle for salvation.  The grace that has freed us from bondage to sin is desperately needed to free us from our bondage to materialism.